James Brook / Design

Work in progress for Surface Echoes

Surface Echoes is a three year project working with patient communities to find meaningful, thought-provoking ways to make the thousands of voices of those affected by eczema heard. Producing a digital archive of these powerful and moving quotes in different creative forms will raise awareness, promote discussion, reduce stigma and increase understanding of this condition, not only amongst academics to direct their research, but also for healthcare workers to guide their treatment approach, carers and the general public.

Surface Echoes is an interdisciplinary collaboration involving a range of different creative practitioners.  The creative aspect of the collaboration has shifted and expanded over the course of the project, bringing together a rich variety of talents and expertise at different stages.

I have been involved with making the collage of the Surface Echoes script available digitally as a PDF, manipulating the scanned version in Photoshop to make it easier to read and understand while still maintaining the scratchy, disruptive aesthetic of the original. I have worked closely with Bev Hood and Catherine Street, reading through the script to analyse how the degraded collaged form slows down the reader to create a more thoughtful reading experience and how that engagement can be improved with subtle typographic interventions.

Below is a detail of the original scan of the college created by Bev Hood and Catherine Street that collects together quotes from people living with eczema; above is a detail of my edit of the scan which will be available as a printable PDF script.

Click here to find out more about the Surface Echoes project on the Ascus website.

Work in progress for Manipulate Festival 2025

Work in progress with Manipulate Arts for the Manipulate Festival, coming soon in February 2025! www.manipulatearts.co.uk

In Our Lifetime: an anti-imperialist resource

In Our Lifetime: an anti-imperialist resource

Edited by Hussein Mitha

With contributions from Lola Olufemi, Mira Mattar, Hannah Proctor, Houria Bouteldja, Farah Saleh, Amirah M Silmi, Maya Uppal, Ghassan Abu-Sittah, Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri, and Sulaïman Majali

Soft cover | 210 x 148 mm | 64 pages | Printed by Gomer, Wales

This is a publication that I designed for Arika, a political arts organisation that supports connections between artistic production and social change. In Our Lifetime: an anti-imperialist resource was produced for Episode 11: To End the World As We Know It, five days of film, music, discussion and study at Tramway, Glasgow, 13-17 November 2024. The resource includes poetry, essays, questions, prompts, letters and works of anti-colonial imaginary and was edited by the artist and educator Hussein Mitha who I worked very closely with, along with Siobhan Carroll, the producer at Arika.

The design of the book was informed by the immediacy of the powerful content – I used typefaces that were present in the original manuscripts and employed a light touch to preserve the (sometimes idiosyncratic) formatting and layout of the contributors’ Word documents while creating a subtle sense of order and cohesiveness to the layout of the book. The editor had suggested using a design element, motif or imagery to lighten the text but, once the texts were in place, the ‘internal logic’ of the typographic system alongside controlled areas of white space generated a design where such interventions seemed unnecessary (though I did present an option that used a grey version of the angled black rectangle from the cover as a device to mark the opening of each section which wasn’t used).

The angled black rectangle on the cover is the same dimensions as the text block which is rotated by 1 degree to create a feeling of de-stabilisation that seemed fitting to the radical content of the book – the title appears as a block of text at the top of the rectangle suggesting connotations of protest posters or banners. This mood is further emphasised on the back cover which utilises the same black rectangle, aligned to the text block with of the inside pages, with the rallying cry of ‘intifada, revolution!’ layered over it like graffiti on a wall. I initially thought that this slogan would also appear on the front cover but the editor preferred the slogan on the back cover only – on reflection, the starkness of the black rectangle with text at the top only is a far more powerful image: a tombstone for imperialism.

The publication had a very tight production schedule but we were able to turn it around very quickly and even managed to get it to the printers ahead of schedule! The printers of the book, the excellent Gomer in Wales, also pulled out all the stops to ensure that the book arrived in time for the event.

Pat Fisher: Paintings 2018–2024

Pat Fisher: Paintings 2018–2024

Photography by Keith Hunter

Self cover booklet | 240 x 130 mm | 12 pages | Printed offset by Gomer Print, Wales, on 150 gsm Arctic Matt

Pat Fisher is a curator and artist and a former Director at Edinburgh’s Talbot Rice Gallery, 2004-2016. This is a modest publication that I designed with Pat which records three exhibitions of her paintings in 2024: at Stallanbrand, Glasgow; the Window, Perth; and at Milchstrasse 4, Munich. I went to see Pat’s exhibition at Stallanbrand and fell in love with these quietly considered paintings so I was delighted to work with her on this project.

The artist had a very clear idea of how her works should be presented and came to me with a small exhibition catalogue of Cy Twombly’s work, published by Gagosian Gallery, to use as a model. The size and general layout is based on that catalogue though with a different typographic approach using Gill Sans Nova, a typeface designed by Monotype Studio designer George Ryan, derived from the original work of the influential British artist Eric Gill (1882-1940). I really like this update to Gill Sans, particularly the elegant non-aligning figures which I used for the catalogue captions but not for the cover titling where standard figures worked better with the arrangement of type.

The typography on the front and back cover is printed in a blue that was sampled from one of the paintings. Like the inside pages, the cover is dominated by white space but, with the coloured typography, I was aiming to create a subtle difference to the inside pages, where the typography is printed in black. I experimented with various colours, including a green similar to the one used on the Cy Twombly catalogue, but, in the end, Pat and I decided that this blue was the strongest colour enabling the text to be comfortably read while also making a connection to the colour palette of the work inside.

The paintings are all centred on the page, two to a page, with captions underneath, also centred. The captions are set over three lines with the title of the painting in bold. As with the cover, there is a lot of white space, giving the paintings room to breathe. For consistency, I removed the backgrounds from the images and added a uniform drop shadow so that the paintings feel like they are all inhabiting the same (virtual) space. The artist and I adjusted the size of the images on the page so that the paintings were proportionally sized in relation to each each other.

It was interesting to hear the artist’s thoughts about paper: we looked at several samples until we found one that felt right – in Pat’s words, one that felt like a ‘fine’ paper. The publication was printed by Gomer in Wales on Arctic Matt, a coated paper with a soft, white matt surface with a natural feel and a slight warmth. Initially, I had suggested a bulkier paper, around 170 gsm, but the artist wanted a lighter paper (and possibly one even lighter than the 150 gsm we eventually selected). In the end, I am happy that we chose the weight that we did as I think that with a lighter paper, we may have had see-through and I think that would have been detrimental to the images on the page of Pat’s beautiful paintings.

Pat Fisher: James Brook is a sensitive and innovative designer. He listens to the client carefully, aiming to enhance the initial vision with his knowledge and skill. The planning process is detailed and generous, James gives his time and ideas readily and quickly follows up with drafts. He is genuinely and creatively engaged in the projects and process and this is reflected in the finished product where is sharp eye and attention to detail is evident, even in the modest publication he designed for me recently. I fully recommend him with no hesitation.

Collective Satellites Exhibition Identity

I was asked to design an exhibition identity for Satellites, Collective’s development programme for emerging creative practitioners based in Scotland. The exhibition, pass shadow, whisper shade, brings together new work by the six participants in the 2024 programme: Clarinda Tse, Emelia Kerr Beale, Hannan Jones, Josie KO, Katherine Fay Allan and Rowan Markson. There was no lead image for the exhibition so the design brief specified a typographic approach using Collective’s font Circular Standard and a palette of colours that formed part of the branding created by Graphical House in 2014. Collective agreed that I could use a complimentary typeface alongside Circular Standard and I worked on a series of drafts experimenting with different typefaces.

Initially there was no title for the exhibition, just the strapline Collective Satellites Programme 2024 with Satellites as the key word. I’ve always been interested in the tensions generated when a design aesthetic that is rooted in corporate identity is combined with contemporary visual art practice that is inherently anti-corporate – early iterations pursued this idea but on this occasion, I realised this approach was not appropriate. David Upton proposed the title pass shadow, whisper shade for the exhibition and the beautiful poetic feel of those words suggested to me a very different approach to the identity. I found that Freight Text Pro worked well alongside Circular Standard so I used it to typeset the title of the exhibition using the delicate light italic variation to amplify the literary/bookish feel to the words (The title in part comes from an Irish proverb, ‘Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine’, meaning ‘people live in each other’s shadows’). I typeset the list of participating artists in the light version of the typeface and placed them – and the exhibition strapline – in an informal arrangement that gave a sense of movement in the design.

I experimented with various colours and treatments for the background using gradients of colours taken from the Collective branding. The background was looking rather flat and lifeless, so I started thinking about photographs that I had taken on my phone of shadows and light, which I thought might help create texture in it. I’m always a little cautious about using my own imagery in projects such as this, as it could be mistaken for a representation of work in the exhibition. However, once I combined the almost abstract image of shadows of foliage on a wall with the colours and gradients already in place in the background, something magical happened and the design came to life – though I was still apprehensive about using my own imagery. Fortunately, Collective agreed that this was the best treatment and the design fell in to place with the Collective logo, sponsor logos and secondary information typeset in Circular Standard arranged at the edges of the layout.

Although initially designed as an A3 format poster, the design was adapted to suit other formats such as a horizontal advert, email banners, and square imagery for social media. As always, once a kit of parts has been established and finalised it is relatively simple – and also rather satisfying – to adapt them to different uses.

www.collective-edinburgh.art

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust Postcards

Here are two postcards that I designed for the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust. The postcards are A6, 148 x 105mm, and were printed on a 350gsm recycled uncoated stock by Mixam. A modest job but good to work again with the Trust’s director, Rob Airey. Click here to see the book of poetry that I designed for the Trust in 2023.

National Galleries of Scotland – The Art Works

Here are some items that I designed for National Galleries of Scotland’s The Art Works, a project to deliver a sustainable new facility to care for, research and share Scotland’s renowned art collection. Working with Holly Yeoman, the Community Development Coordinator for The Art Works, I have designed wall panels for two murals in North Edinburgh, a map to guide visitors, and a leaflet that was produced for a series of community engagement events. Find out more about The Art Works by clicking here.

Shelagh Atkinson: Dig

Shelagh Atkinson: Dig: An Excavation of Mine

Published by the Women’s Art Library, 2024

Texts by Shelagh Atkinson, Stuart Duffin RSA, Dr Althea Greenan, and Colin R Greenslade

Soft cover with flaps | 210 x 155 mm | 56 pages | Printed by Gomer, Wales, on Edixion Offset

It has been an absolute pleasure to collaborate on this publication with Shelagh Atkinson, a multi-disciplinary artist working across print, painting, drawing, photography, sound and mail art. In 2019 Atkinson was one of a small number of artists to be selected for an intensive programme run by Art360 Foundation in conjunction with Creative Scotland to support the development of her archive and legacy. In 2023, Art360 released a documentary film by award-winning filmmaker, David Bickerstaff, exploring the artist’s legacy. Following on from that award and film, this publication once again delves into the artist’s extraordinary archive of work.

The publication began as a series of conversations that started in Shelagh’s studio in Patriothall, Stockbridge. It’s always fascinating to visit an artist’s studio and to see work that is both finished and in progress alongside the other materials, objects and ephemera that inspire an artist’s practice. I was delighted to see a tape cassette of the eponymous Flying Lizards album from 1979 on Shelagh’s shelf – as a teenager, this album was a huge inspiration and I still find new references in its dense sound collages. Aside from music, Shelagh and I bonded over a wide range of topics including LGBTQ+ identities, left-wing politics, and working outside of the mainstream.

It became clear in our conversations, and through looking closely at Shelagh’s work, that a conventional monograph or catalogue was not going to do justice to the breadth of her practice and that a linear chronological approach was not going to reveal the many inter-connections that are present in her work. I suggested that we should take a layered approach that aimed to create meanings by the juxtaposition of text and images (and ephemera). With hindsight, I can’t help but wonder if the cover of that Flying Lizards album with its densely-layered Xerographies by the artist and graphic designer Laurie-Rae Chamberlain was a subliminal inspiration.

We continued to have conversations and Shelagh started to send me images of her work. I had suggested that maybe a thematic approach, excavating subjects in her practice, would suit the arrangement of the book. We talked more about the idea of layering and, in my head, an idea of how the book might look started to appear. As much as I love talking about projects with artists, there is always a moment when I feel it is important to start sharing rough designs on screen as the ideas in my head may not match the artist’s ideas or represent the ideas that I have been attempting to articulate. Shelagh sent me a set of images and a text for the first section and I set about working up some visual roughs.

One of the many things in Shelagh’s practice that resonated with me is her use of stencil alphabets to create words in paintings, prints and drawings, to form a sort of handwriting. Using a full alphabet that Shelagh had drawn with two different sets of stencils, I created vectors of each letter that could be assembled to make words which could then be enlarged, coloured and adapted – these stencil letters formed the foundation of the design of the book. I used Shelagh’s stencil letters alongside the typeface Founders Grotesk, a more characterful – but still discreet – alternative to Helvetica that Shelagh has used on other projects.

The first section that I worked on was titled ‘Drawing’. As well as images, Shelagh gave me a short text to act as an introduction to the section and I was given free range to work up some ideas using the materials I had been given. I presented three versions to Shelagh: a fairly classic presentation of the works; a more ‘out there’ version; and finally a version that most closely resembled the ideas that had been brewing in my head. I was delighted that Shelagh went with the third version and it was this iteration, with some changes suggested by Shelagh, that formed the backbone to the design of the rest of the book. We had already agreed that the images would not be captioned (a list of works appears at the end of the book) so, aside from the page numbers, which are consistently placed, I was free to design each page in response to the works that Shelagh had selected for that spread, creating dialogues and connections between the images and texts.

I used coloured shapes with a palette of colours sampled from the works themselves to create abstract elements that frame the works alongside repetitions of texts, stencilled words, and details from other works such as drawings, scribbles, marks and glitches. Sometimes the layerings are dense, and sometimes they are stripped back. Through a series of exchanges of PDFs of the layouts between Shelagh and myself, I adjusted the designs until we were both happy with the result. The layout remained fluid throughout: works were moved around, new ones added, and some removed. Each section was designed separately, one at a time, building on from the design of the previous section. Sometimes I would return to the previous section adding elements from the latest section: there was a cumulative effect of layers as the book grew, section by section. Some sections arrived more easily while other sections took longer to settle – I really enjoyed this collaborative process and it gave me an opportunity to work more intuitively than usual, perhaps more like an artist – reflecting my roots as a painter – rather than as a graphic designer.

Dig: An Excavation of Mine is printed on Edixion Offset, an economical white uncoated paper that takes ink well which I have used in other projects. The paper has a softness about it that I felt was appropriate for the project, with perhaps a hint of a sketchbook about it. The book has a soft cover with flaps – the rear flap is glued at them top and bottom to form a pocket to hold one of Shelagh’s postcards, Holding Left, Left Holding. I was delighted to find that, when the finished book came back from the printer, it was completed and felt whole by the inclusion of Shelagh’s postcard. A true collaboration.